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WoodwardÕs Industrial Turbomachinery Systems building construction is underway Monday, Jan. 12, 2015 at the construction site of the Woodward manufacturing facility on Lincoln Street in Fort Collins, CO. The building is planned to be completed by the end of the year. , Morgan Spiehs/The Coloradoan

WoodwardÕs Industrial Turbomachinery Systems building construction is underway Monday, Jan. 12, 2015 at the construction site of the Woodward manufacturing facility on Lincoln Street in Fort Collins, CO. The building is planned to be completed by the end of the year. , Morgan Spiehs/The Coloradoan

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Crews work on Woodward’s Industrial Turbomachinery Systems building at the company’s 70-acre campus off Lincoln Street in Fort Collins in this Jan. 12 photo.(Photo: Morgan Spiehs/The Coloradoan)Buy Photo

In the next few weeks, skin will start to shroud Woodward Inc.'s corporate headquarters and industrial turbomachinery buildings under construction on Lincoln Avenue.

The exterior treatment will transform the raw steel into something looking more like the future high-tech corporate campus of one of Fort Collins' largest private employers.

By the end of the year, the 300,000-square-foot industrial turbomachinery systems, or ITS, building and three-story, 60,000-square-foot corporate headquarters will be ready to open, wrapping up more than two years of work on the former 100-acre Link-N-Greens golf course near the city's center.

Corporate offices will be the first to move from Woodward's expansive Drake Road facility, said Steve Stiesmeyer, director of corporate real estate for the aerospace and engines systems company. That's a change from an original plan to begin construction of the corporate offices next year after the ITS building was completed.

Stiesmeyer said it was more efficient to keep construction flowing from one job to the next.

Corporate offices will move to the new site between December and February, but it will take considerably longer for Woodward's existing large machinery and its operators to make the move. "We don't plan to lose one day of production," Stiesmeyer said. So the move will be done in phases, ensuring the continuation of business.

About 60 percent of the equipment at the new site will be moved from existing Woodward facilities.

The campus will house between 600 and 700 employees when the buildings open next year and gradually ramp up to about 1,700 workers.

During a January tour of the Woodward site, project manager Salomon Moya of Mortenson Construction said 160 iron workers, masons, plumbers, electricians and other construction workers were on site and the crew would grow to between 225 and 250 before the more than $250 million project was finished.

Building designs are taking Woodward into a new era with an open concept suited to recruit and retain millennials, Stiesmeyer said. Millennials are generally considered the generation born after 1980.

"Boomers like to work at a desk with their pictures on the walls. Millennials, when they walk into a building, want to look at the entire floor as theirs," he said. "They are not bound to a cubicle ... they can go anywhere and find the tools they need to do their job. For them that fits with their mindset."

The facilities are open, with ample natural light, glass, patios and balconies that can accommodate small groups.

It's a sea change for the company that's marking its 60th anniversary in Fort Collins. Woodward moved its corporate headquarters here from Rockford, Illinois, in 2007 when Tom Gendron was named CEO.

"We're changing our culture and building workspace to support more innovation and more collaboration," Stiesmeyer said.

Once the new campus opens, Woodward will look at the future of its other facilities in Fort Collins and Loveland. There is no intent to leave the sprawling Drake Road campus, Steismeyer said, and the company is evaluating the future of its Loveland site.

"Originally, we were considering leaving Loveland," he said, but that option is now under review.

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Watch a time-lapse movie to see all the Woodward Governor HQ project progress to date. Courtesy Mortenson Construction, Woodward and City of Fort Collins.

How we got here

Woodward's quest for a new corporate home is well documented.

The company considered other sites that offered more lucrative incentives and had easier sites to develop than a golf course running along the Poudre River in Fort Collins. But Gendron "is passionate" about the city, Stiesmeyer said.

No one will comment officially on how close Woodward came to walking away from negotiations with the city and taking the multimillion-dollar project with it.

"The specific conversations I had with Woodward officials during the city development process are confidential," said David May, president and CEO of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce. "However, I will say that at one point I believe we were very close to losing the project."

Stiesmeyer, who joined Woodward after the project was approved, said "Fort Collins wanted Woodward to stay and Woodward wanted to stay, but there were three or four other sites that were very highly considered."

The Fort Collins Downtown Development Authority will contribute up to $16.7 million in tax increment financing for facade and infrastructure improvements, money that will come from property taxes that would otherwise go to the DDA through the increased value of the Woodward property.

The DDA board committed that revenue to the project for facade improvements, moving a Platte River Power Authority transmission line, right of way improvements to Lincoln and Lemay avenues and natural areas work.

The city offered $23.5 million in tax incentives and fee waivers, including $6.8 million in rebated use taxes and fees delivered over time, to keep the company in Fort Collins.

As part of the development, Woodward deeded 31 of the site's 101 acres back to the city to be included in Fort Collins' natural areas program.

The Poudre River and Poudre River Trail wind along the property's western border between Lincoln and Lemay avenues.

The project is seen as a catalyst for other development in Old Town, including a downtown hotel and residential dwellings, and one that can create a new gateway to Fort Collins on Mulberry Street.

"When people drive by they will see a great campus," Stiesmeyer said, and maybe think manufacturing can be "really cool."

By the numbers: Woodward campus construction

Cost: $200 million plus $50 million for equipment

Cost of land: $9 million

Incentives: $23.5 million in tax incentives and fee waivers from the city

Size of property: 101 acres originally. Woodward deeded 31 acres to the city for inclusion in its natural areas program.

Jobs created: Woodward plans to employ as many as 1,700 workers at the site; 1,800 construction jobs are anticipated. Between 600 and 700 workers will occupy the new campus when it opens.